On Sunday, the SRC addressed students to share feedback after their discussions with the university.
Students protesting about debt and a shortage of housing then marched to the home of Wits vice-chancellor Zeblon Vilakazi to "place pressure" on him to meet their demands.
This came after a meeting between the Student Representative Council and the Wits administration over a variety of concerns, during which the SRC purportedly rejected the concessions given. According to the institution, classes will resume on Monday.
According to Jacaranda FM report, Students are protesting the exclusion of 6,000 students who they claim were unable to register due to budgetary constraints.
The SRC is also requesting further housing aid.
The SRC told eNCA reporters "We said to the senior executive team, no student who is participating in this protest must be suspended because we are exercising our right, we said to them, if NSFAS is paying R45000, no student must be asked to top up, we said to Wits management, scrap the top up even in external accommodation, there must be no top-up."
"We said to Wits, in our internal accommodation, if accommodation is R80,000 and you're a student who is funded by NSFAS, that R80,000 must be paid, we as students were not paying anything more. Amandla!"
However, the institution stated in a written statement that the demand for historical debt had been modified from the initial demand.
"Given resource constraints, the university is not able to allow all students across all programmes, whether full-time, part-time or occasional, to register without them meeting the re-registration requirements," Wits said in a statement."
“This will further only be applicable to students seeking to register for the programme that they were registered in for the 2022 academic year, and not for registration towards new programmes, part-time and/or occasional studies.
“The university will endeavour to seek external donor funds for this once-off concession, to assist academically excellent students. The university will accordingly allow the late registration of students who fall into this cohort of students only"
According to the school, roughly 200 kids marched to his house and threatened to burn it down.
 |
| Photo: The Citizen/Nigel Sibanda |
